DJ Gaybash! pays homage to Chicago’s Black and queer communities one track at a time
DJ Gaybash! is a classically trained percussionist and DJ in Chicago. Photo by Jeff Ramone.
Since they were young, DJ Gaybash! has had music in their veins. But the classically trained musician eventually traded the timpani drums for turntables.
“You can call me Bash,” the 25-year-old DJ tells me on an icy gray afternoon. The DJ asked Mustard to refer to them by their moniker for the piece.
Bash grew up in the Chicago suburb of Orland Park and studied classic orchestral percussion throughout high school and in college at Northern Illinois University.
In spite of their classical upbringing, Bash was always interested in electronic music. The DJ cites deadmau5 as a huge influence, as were early aughts chartoppers Calvin Harris and Kaskade.
In middle school, Bash started doing their own research, scouring the internet to figure out how DJs like deadmau5 crafted beats without instruments. “He was doing analog synthesis for a lot of it, so I tried getting into that,” Bash says. “He’s someone who just really inspired me.”
Bash played a number of instruments as a young percussionist: the snare drum, bass drum, marimba, a variety of cymbals, timpani, steel pan, conga, timbales and batá drums, to name a few. Bash was so exhausted by the end of their senior year at NIU that they haven’t picked up an instrument since.
DJ Gaybash! hosts Putopia at the California Clipper on February 7. Photo by Ty Yamamoto.
“I was kind of falling out of love with music, my relationship was ending and I had to figure out where I was going to live,” Bash says. “So I was like, ‘let’s take some chances, move to Chicago, start DJing and see where it takes me.’”
So far, Bash has racked up DJ sets across the city, including popular haunts like Podlasie Club, California Clipper and The Getaway. Recently, they formed a queer, POC DJ collective, Putopia, with two other burgeoning Chicago DJs, BiLatinBby and JUAN aka GRIZZLY.
Bash has seven shows in February and kicks off the month by hosting Putopia’s next event at the Clipper on February 7, followed by a set at The Getaway with tigermilk on February 8.
When Bash was still in college they experienced their first underground rave in Chicago. At the time they had mostly listened to white DJs and producers—or classical composers. Bash watched as their friend (Chicago and NYC-based DJ Lita Da Doll) torched the decks, splicing gospel tracks with ghetto tech and other genres cultivated by queer Black artists. In a moment, Bash’s world expanded.
“That was my first time understanding how Black queerness meets DJing,” Bash says. “Ever since then I was super inspired to want to do it myself.”
Bash taught themselves the ins and outs of DJing and, like when they were a kid, threw themselves into the little details, poring over decades of musical history and varying electronic genres. They went to open decks in the city and made playlists of new artistic discoveries, hoping to share them with anyone who would listen.
Unlike classical music, which at times felt isolating, Bash could really put themselves into electronic music.
DJ Gaybash! Photo courtesy of Mustard Magazine.
“Classical music for the most part is written by a lot of European, white composers—some who were queer—but often secretly,” Bash says. “In some ways I could relate, but in a lot of ways I couldn't.”
Bash says the lack of representation was one of the things that drove them away from classical and into electronic music.
“As much as I did love classical music and the people I met along the way, it was a struggle just being in places that were primarily white,” Bash says. “Being a person of color in a space like that was challenging a lot of the time. As a DJ, it’s an artform that was made by Black queer people. I can really connect with it in a completely different way.”
When Bash first started DJing in 2023, it wasn’t uncommon for them to plan every track and transition in their set. Like anyone starting something new, they didn’t want to mess up. “But my goal had always been to strictly be improvising when I’m DJing,” Bash says. “I do think DJing should be freestyled.”
Now, Bash incorporates a number of styles into every set: techno, house, K-pop, hyper pop, female rap, ghetto tech, ghetto house, R&B, UK garage and early ‘90s techno. And it’s not uncommon for the DJ to pay homage to Chicago house legends like Steve Pointdexter and Paul Johnson.
But the focus is always on lifting up queer pioneers and their stories.
January 2024 promotional flyer for DJ Gaybash!
The Putopia collective emphasizes back to back (B2B) sets where DJs share the decks and take turns playing tracks.
“It’s a conversation when you do a back to back,” Bash says, describing the live experience. “It’s not just like, ‘I say a sentence, you say a sentence.’ Sometimes you’ll tell a whole story and I’ll just listen and then respond with an anecdote. Maybe it’s shorter than yours,” but that’s the beauty of it.
“The fluidity, you know?” Bash retorts.
Through each selection, the artists volley songs like a tennis ball over the speakers, taking the crowd along with them, each track advancing the dialogue on the dance floor.
Sometimes being in the DJ booth is the time to pour one’s heart out—to tell a story about something deeper.
Shifting in their seat, what the DJ reveals next is heavier. “It’s been emotional for me the past few weeks,” Bash says.
Bash, who works in luxury perfume, proceeds to tell me about their friend and coworker—a queer Black man who was in his twenties during the birth of the Chicago House scene.
This friend frequented the Warehouse, a haven for Black and queer youth in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, and regularly saw legends like resident DJ and “Godfather of House Music” Frankie Knuckles spinning on the decks.
“I love talking about it,” Bash says of their friend’s storied past. “We’re very lucky to meet queer people out in the world who, A, are still alive, but also who were there during that era.”
Bash continues, this time speaking softly through tears. “He’ll tell me about his friends who aren’t alive anymore or friends he doesn't really speak with anymore … he’ll tell me how when he would go to the [Ware]house it would be like a story. So I’ve been trying to understand that. I haven’t been able to get to the point where I’m telling a whole story [in one set]. But I’m trying to figure out how to paint that picture with music.”
Perhaps the picture that Bash is painting isn’t one single image in isolation, but a mural that changes over time; each beat a new layer of paint telling a story about someone, or something, right here in Chicago.
“I've made it my mission that wherever I go as a Black queer person, I make my space, I have fun and I be seen,” Bash says. Photo courtesy of Mustard Magazine.
“So much of Chicago culture is built by Black queer people,” Bash says. “I want to create space for Black and trans people to feel safe, to feel represented and empowered.”
Their name, DJ Gaybash!, is an extension of that objective. “It felt like a little bit of reclamation,” Bash says, especially right now, as the Trump Administration goes to unconscionable lengths to try to revoke the rights of trans people and erase queer people from public discourse. “I've made it my mission that wherever I go as a Black queer person, I make my space, I have fun and I be seen,” Bash says proudly.
That’s because it’s not just about being visible—it’s about being visibly joyful. Being visibly together. Being visibly loved.
“I know we’re just partying at the end of the day, but we’re creating space for each other and having fun,” Bash says. Throughout the decades, creating community for Black trans and queer people has always been an act of necessity, joy and resistance.
DJ Gaybash! has seven shows booked for February. Photo by Jeff Ramone.
“During the weekday, everyone’s probably having a hard time—we’re probably going to be having hard times,” Bash says. “It’s nice for at least three or four hours to go out and just be with people who look like you and be queer and be different.”
“And if I can help somebody escape for a few hours—if I can feed my soul and connect with people? As long as I can continue to do that, I think 2025 will be good.”
DJ Gaybash! hosts Putopia: Dancehall Night at the California Clipper on February 7 (9 p.m., $5) and performs with tigermilk at The Getaway on February 8 (10 p.m., no cover).
